I’ve started constructing my Birds and Blooms book, this book is a mixture of new cross-stitch birds and ones I made over the last few years as mini cushions. I’ve interspersed them with a handful of cross-stitch flowers to fill it out a bit.

I posted the page with the long tailed tit last week…

I backed each page with iron on buckram, stitched it to the next page before ironing the two pages together. It does give a nice crisp page. The pages are 5.75″ square.

Once I have two sets of pages I stitch the pair together to make a double page spread. The next page is actually a cross-stitch I did probably about forty years ago, I made it into a bell pull, it’s been in my sewing room on my pegboard for the last couple of years. I decided to use it for my book. I trimmed about the bottom inch of stitching, added two long borders, a length of tape and some feather stitch. The page opposite is some quilting fabric I picked up at the Spring Quilt Show last weekend.

The next double page spread (still to be attached down the spine) has some forget-me-knots I made into a mini cushion many years ago and a kookaburra I stitched a couple of years ago when I was making lots of mini-cross-stitches. It’s another Fido Stitch Studio kit.

After the kookaburra is a blackbird print from some dress-making fabric I’ve earmarked for a shirt which colour-wise picked up the colours of the cross-stitch nuthatch nicely. This one is also a former mini-cushion…

After the nuthatch is a new cross-stitch, this is a bluetit, all the birds (apart from the bellpull one) are designs from the same company, Fido Stitch Studio, I like the detail in their designs. I usually prefer to buy a pattern rather than a kit but to be honest, they use so many different colours (in Anchor too) it’s better to get the kit. To give you an idea, the bluetit uses nineteen colours!! Opposite it will be a colourful quilting fabric that has bluetits on.

I’ve about another eight pages to stitch together, then just a front and back page to create. I think I should get it finished in time for the local show in May!